A Special Week!

  Hello Family!  Well, here we are again, on a transfer week!  Good thing is that I`m not going anywhere this change!  Actually, all of us in Chinique, Elder Riera and I, and Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, are going to stay here for this change, which is really rare..  But we have been working really well together, so I feel like it is a good thing!  I hope that we are going to have the same success that we had this change and then some.  I know that it all depends on the way that we work, so we are going to work hard to bring as many souls unto Christ as we can!

     I`ll start off this week with the highlight of this week:  We had two baptisms on Saturday!  Woo Hoo!  Okay, even though they are technically investigators of Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, I still feel really happy for them.  The ceremony was so special for me, because it was my first baptism here in Chinique, and really my first in way too long!  It was so great, because they are youth of a family that we are teaching, and the whole family (of about 15 people) came to see them be baptized!  It was so great to see!  The only bad thing about it was that it could have been three...  I`m talking about Jimmy.  Earlier this week we really sat down with Jimmy and asked if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes!  So we said he could be baptized on this Saturday, but he had plans to go to Quichè and visit his Grandma for the weekend, so we couldn`t do it this week.  But yesterday, we talked to him, and he said that he still wants to be baptized, so we are planning for this Saturday, so wish us luck!

     We had a really powerful spiritual experience this week that I want to share with you guys.  We have an investigator that we met this week named Milset.  Our first lesson with her wasn`t the best, mainly because the first things that she wanted to know were little things about our church, like about coffee, about dancing, and whether girls can wear pants or not...  So yeah, we spent too long talking about that, and at the end, I finally said something along the lines of "We don`t really know every single reason for the commandments that we have, but what we do know is that they are given of God through our Prophets, namely Joseph Smith, so the thing that really matters is whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet."  She then said that she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith, so we planned to watch a video with her for our next lesson.  The video is "Joseph Smith:  Prophet of the Restoration," which talks about the life of Joseph Smith and what he did.  We went back on Friday to watch it, and I was hoping for something really special to happen.  And it did happen!  We started the video, and from the get go Milset was really interested! She had her 8 year old son watching also, and about half way through he started getting restless, but Milset didn`t let that bother her.  She told him to try and be quiet, and went right back to watching the film.  After it was done, we asked her how she felt about it.  She said that she had met with missionaries before, and they had told her about Joseph Smith, but she kind of just ingored it.  But this time, when she actually got to "see" the life of Joseph Smith, she said that there would be no other reason that he would do all that he did, unless that it was for a reason.  I just felt the Spirit so strong when she was talking, and I started to see in my mind`s eye her entering the waters of baptism.  It made me so happy, and I really gained so much testimony for Joseph Smith, and all that he did.  I really feel good about her now, because she went the very next day to see the baptism that we had!  I have a really good feeling that in about 3 weeks or so, she could be baptized!  But what a powerful experience for me!  (And I really hope that I explained it so you all can understand!)

     One cool thing really quick, we were playing soccer this week (which I am completely awful at compared to all these Latinos...), and I had the coolest goal I have had during the mission!  We were running up on a "fastbreak", because my teammate had the ball, and I was running down the field with him, and there was only one defender.  My teammate passed it to me, but it was a little to hard, and started to head out of bounds.  Now, the field that we are playing on is pretty much and indoor turf field, so there are concrete walls all around the out of bounds.  Anyways, the ball was headed out of bounds, so I ran as fast as I could, and attempted to stop it.  I ran, stopped it with my foot, and ran right into the wall!  I heard everyone gasp, and I was a little dazed, but I didn`t fall down.  I looked for the ball, and it happened to stop right before the out of bounds line, right next to the goal.  Everyone was still shocked about what happened, so I hurried and kicked it in for a goal!  I started to run down the field, but I realized that my left knee was completely bleeding!  Haha I guess after the adreneline left me, I realized that I was in a lot of pain!  BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!  YES!!!  So yeah, reading it again, I think that you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but I hope that you can imagine what it was like!  Haha just thought I`d share it with you guys!

     So yeah, it was a really good week this week, and I feel like the next coming weeks can be just as special.  I know that the Lord is really blessing us out here in Chinique, and I am so grateful for it.  I know that without His help, I would be nothing, but I know that I can accomplish something great with the hands of the Lord helping me out!  I love you all so much, and thank you all for your support!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture:  D+C 135:5  Talks a lot about what Joseph Smith did, and how great of a man he was!

A Week of Learning

    Hello Family!  After a really busy week, here we are again!  Sorry about emailing so late, but we pretty much just got back from Xela today for P-Day this late!  Can you believe it?  But it was a fun day today, we went and played soccer in some nice turf fields in Xela, bought a ton of food for the whole month, and basically just enjoyed being in an actual city!  Haha it definitely is a lot different from Pancá, that´s for sure!  I´m sure that this week was a really gruelling week for you guys too, well, mainly Mom and Ryan, because The Little Mermaid opened up this week!  I hope that everything went somewhat according to plan (because I know that there still are going to be some things that went wrong, as it always does!)  But I really hope that all your hard work payed off this week, and you will be able to enjoy the play now!

     I say that this week was really busy, mainly because this Thrusday, we went down to Xela to have a mission conference with President Martino of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, who is the Area President of all of Central America!  So that was way cool!  He really spoke with a lot of confidence, and he wasn´t afraid to bring the hammer down when he needed to!  I learned so much from him just from one day, and he really motivated me (and I´m pretty sure all of us) to really work our butts off and serve the mission like it should be served!  One of my favorite parts of his advice for us was this line.  It is ten words, but every word has only two letters.  It is:  "If it is to be, it is up to me."  Powerful stuff.  Really puts it into perspective, that if we want something, we should work for it, because it is up to us if we want something!  Of course we will have the Lord´s help, but he can´t help steer our direction if we aren´t moving forward!  SO...  we should always be "anxiously engaged in a good cause,"  and the Lord will bless us!

     So in Pancá this week, we had some interesting things go on!  First off, on a good but surprising note, we figured out for the first time this week that a 10 year old girl, who has been coming to church almost every week since I´ve been here, hasn´t actually been baptized!  Apparently she flew right under the radar!  I think it was becaue her Mom was a less active member when I arrived, and we reactivated her like the second week I was here.  Ever since then, the little girl has been attending church, but hasn´t been baptized!  So we are going to jump on that right quick!  Also, we had a menos activo family come with us to church this week!  It was so cool to see them, because they (By the way, Elder Tejero says hi right now!) live about 2 hours and 15 minutes away, and about an hour away from the nearest member.  And yet they came to church!  How cool is that?  They have almost nothing, but still they came to chruch by walking for so long!  It really was so amazing to see them there this week.

     But really, I have learned so much about the mission this week, and in so doing so, about myslef.  The mission really does change lives, and I am so grateful to be here right now.  I really am learning so much, and I still have about a year and a half left!  So here´s to learning so much more!  Thank you all so much for your emails this week, and I will talk to you all next week!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

An Awesome Week!

 Hello Family!  I can`t wait to tell you all about the week that I have had!  It has been just a really good example of how the mission life is!  The mission definitely does have it`s ups and downs, but that`s all part of life, right?  We just need to push through the challenges and strive to do our best in everything!  

     This week started out a little rough.  We didn`t get back to our house in Pancà until late Tuesday night, because of the Visa thing I had to figure out on Monday.  So we lost about a day and a half of work that we could have done.  So on Wednesday, we went out to go and find some people to teach and Less Active members to go see.  But on that day, either no one was home (which meant we pretty much walked about 45 minutes for nothing!), or they didn`t have much time to visit with us, because they were about to leave (which meant we couldn`t teach them a lesson!)  Not to mention that we got lost on our way back, which sucked, because we forgot our flashlight, and there are no lights anywhere in Pancà, so we struggled over dirt paths through the woods for a while before we finally got home.  So it was a rough day!

     Thankfully, the next day was a whole lot better!  We started off the next day helping the Garcia family (a really nice family really strong in the Gospel) with various jobs around the house.  It felt good to do service for them, because when we do service, we are in the service of God.  Then, they gave us the absolute best lunch I have had in Pancà!  Lydia, the Mom, worked on a huge dish of Chow Mein for us, and after working for so long and so hard, it was much appreciated!  Not to mention it was a nice break from the usual Beans and Rice and Tortillas I have had for the past couple weeks!  It was just a good morning with a nice member family!  Afterwards, our District Leader came all the way to Pancà, because we had some Baptism interviews to take care of!  So we headed out to the Pu Mejia family, and we had the chance to interview Estevana, (the Mom) Erlinda, and Diego (The two kids)!  They all "passed" if you will, and we were all so excited!

     Their date was Friday, the 28 of September, the very next day!  I was looking forward to their baptism the whole day!  It finally came around, and Elder Maldonado and I started setting up for it!  The Pu Mejia family came around, and I can`t even explain how much excitement I had for each of them!  Plus, they surprised me when the two kids asked if I could baptize them!  I was shocked!  I thought for sure that Antonio, the Dad, would do it, but he didn`t want to, and the kids wanted me to!  I was so surprised, but so humbled at the same time!  I was so honored!  So we started the service, and all during the service I was memorizing their names, because these Native names are long and hard, and I didn`t want to mess up!   But the time finally came, and I baptized the two kids!  I felt the spirit so strong, I wasn`t even thinking about what had happened at the beginning of the week.  All I could feel was the Spirit so strong, and the glow from these three new members!  It really made my mission so far!  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to take part in bringing some of these souls here in Guatemala to the truth.  I love that they will be able to feel what I feel when I am in tune with the Spirit now!  I can`t wait to get back to work and find some others that I can help out with!  

    Not to mention this P-Day has been awesome!  Since it is the beginning of the month, we get our funds for the month, so the Zone of Momostenango went to Xela and spent the day there.  We played soccer with another Zone, went around the city (which was weird after being in Pancà for so long!), and bought a lot of food that we can only get in Xela.  All in all a really good day!

     A side note really quick, I am so happy that I have the opportunity to be in Momos.  I heard today that this city especially has a lot of Lamanite blood in it, and is one of the most direct lines there is to them!  Also, I heard that 6 different Apostles have visited this city.  No, no Xela or even Guate, but Momostenango of all places!  It is such a cool place to be, and I love it here!  I am having a blast here, and I wouldn`t rather be anywhere else!  I hope I was able to share my excitement with you all through this email!  I love you all, and can`t wait until next week!  Until Next Time!!!

     - Elder Stuart

     Mosiah 28:3